The Lady In Red
by Frank Exchange of Views
Summary: One of my older stories, set in a "What  if Earth couldn't beat the Ori and evacuated as many as they could to Pegasus." universe.


Ok, this was actually for another GWVF fleet project separate from the main ones, it's one of my oldest "long" works, so it's pretty bad, but hopefully good enough to get some feedback on. The basic premise is that earth lost their war with the Ori and evacuate to Pegasus where they took over the Asuran infrastructure.

* * *

><p>Prologue<p>

Unknown World, Pegasus Galaxy, June 15, 2010.

Purple "time travel" wormhole.

A probe emerges form the Stargate, then circles around rising above the gate where it hovers for a few minutes, rotating slowly and emitting a low buzz before it shoots upwards and vanishes from sight, presumably to check for any dangers lurking in orbit or beyond the horizon.

After a while a soldier drone carrying a stunner staff emerges, followed buy another, and more, until an entire squad has fanned out and secured the perimeter of the clearing. Then a dart edges out but doesn't fly off, instead hovering over the gate.

Inside, a chalky white hand inputs a new address into the dialling computer, and the gate reactivates, allowing the Wraith passage….

* * *

><p>In Orbit Of Abandoned Human World, February 13, 2014<p>

The hive was keeping low orbit, and darts were flying from it down to the planet and back, ferrying some unknown cargo. The ship's skin was bloated, the usual rifts and valleys were barely visible, just their crest showing as shallow ridges on the hull. And there were almost no lights on it, the windows having long sunken under the outer layer of armour. The dart bays were sealed, and ribbing is showing where the hull hadn't flowed over yet. The central cavity was being slowly domed over by a layer of bio armour.

A Wraith officer stepped past some grunts welding bracings into a corridor wall, walking past machinery lying on the floor, ahead, two more grunts carrying a container barely clear the corridor before he walks quickly by.

_Hull displacement is almost complete; its far ahead there's a remote risk of structural failure, as the bracings aren't being installed fast enough. Factories one, two, four and eight are operating at full capacity to keep up with the load, three, five seven and nine are reaching full integration, and we are beginning to retrofit number six. Resources so far haven't been a problem, your initial guess about harvesting abandoned human infrastructure was correct, we can supplement our alloys without needing to mine the metals ourselves…._

The synthetic voice continues too list off progress reports into the dim room, illuminated by the floor to ceiling aquarium curving around its perimeter.

The officer is about to step into a beaming station but the culling beam flickers on disgorging a half dozen grunts and officers dressed in engineer tunics caring lengths of glassy tubing. He waits as they file out and enters, inputting a destination before he's whisked of.

_Three culling beam emitters are online and functional, with work underway on the other. Surface dart bays have been completed, but the designs had to be revised due to lack of military grade dematerialization devices…" _A holographic screen showing shifting light patterns shifted to show the new schematics. _"…The cloning facilities are operating at maximum capacity, but we can't accelerate the process any further, even using crew from other Hives to supplement our own we're barely keeping to the timetable. _

A figure shifter slightly on the couch in front of the aquarium, pulling up her legs under herself.

The wraith officer traverses a long featureless corridor that ends on two immense bodyguards, both officers, standing on either side of a clamshell door. The two slide aside before he can say anything and the door hisses open.

"Enter."

The Hive Personality halted its report and enquired about the new arrival as he walked briskly down the steps.

"My Queen."

The young figure rose form the couch, gathering her silken red rope around her, the light from the aquarium outlining her silhouette though the robe.

The officer took a small box out of the pouch dangling at his side and opened it revealing a Wraith data storage device.

Her skin was unnaturally pale as she took it form him.

"Thank you, please prepare a scout ship, outfit it for long duration travel."

"Very well."

_I still think you should take an escort._ Said the Personality.

_You're being paranoid. _Answered the young Queen telepathically.

_No, I'm being cautious, I'll admit to being protective, but this is reckless. _

_Oh do stop fretting, nobody knows where were about to go, and I'm only leaving for a few days. What could possible go wrong?_ She took the storage device to an alcove in the wall and connected it to a portable DNA computer.

"_You know humans say that saying that increases the chances of something going wrong. "_

"_You're being absurd. And how do you know this anyway?"_

" _I'm not going to change your mind am I?"_

"_Something we can totally agree on."_ She got the mental equivalent of an eye roll.

_Keep in touch._ The Queen smiled turning to look at the varied marine life floating in her private tank, revealing the glint of sharp violet eyes.

* * *

><p>The Scout ship dropped out of hyperspace in orbit of a blue giant, dim in the distance.<p>

She accessed the crafts' sensor clusters, observing the space around here from the solitude of her small cabin. "_Begin searching."_ The pilot acknowledged her request and started running the required programs. After nine jumps hoping through the system searching they finally stumbled onto it, spinning slowly in the orbit of the gas giant. A medium sized Stanford torus, extending mile long cables that used the planet's powerful magnetic field to generate limitless power, docking spires stretching from its inner surface._ "Lets dock."_

* * *

><p>Atlantis Control Room February 14 2014<p>

Sheppard sat down with his tray in the mess hall.

"Colonel Shepard to the Control room, Colonel Shepard- control room." He threw the overhead speaker a wicked stare before getting back up.

"What is it now?"

Zalenka managed to dislodge McKay from his seat at one of the consoles thanks to the distraction. "Hey!"

"I will take care of this, please stop interfering with my station."

"Oh Sheppard, you're here, good. Err, put it up Zelenka."

The crystal screen at the back of the room shifted to a signal analysis program. The thin line jumped every few seconds is a regular pattern.

"Alright, see this? This is a Wraith transmission. We started picking it up a bout half hour ago, it's been keeping steady ever since."

"What's it say?" O'Neil walked in, dropping into a vacant seat with a tired sight.

Zalenka tuned around. "That's the odd part, its not even encrypted, just a repeating set of words, over and over again, too simple to be anything really interesting."

"The only reason we even looked into it." McKay barged in. "Was because it's being transmitted on every channel and every frequency, the Wraith are very interested in making themselves heard on this one."

O'Neil gave the wide-eyed scientist a weird look. "And it says…?"

"Oh yeah, just two words- Come Forth."

"I'm having a serious case of déjà vu."

Wosley and Teyla walked in followed by Ronon. "What's' happening."

"McKay's picking up Wraith rock and roll."

Zalenka explained this time.

"If the Wraith are gathering in such numbers, could we not ambush them at their destination?"

"Unfortunately no, we have no idea where they're going, the signal doesn't give any coordinates, we don't even know the source, it was being forwarded by quite a few hives when we picked it up, boosting it along."

Sheppard stopped propping his chin up with this hand. "Their being awfully cooperative for a bunch of territorial blood suckers. They obviously know where to go, so it's preplanned. I'd like to alert our allies to this General." O'Neil nodded." "And get our ships to spread out some more, maybe we can find them once they start arriving wherever their going-" The computer interrupted him with a loud beep and the pulsating line of the screen went flat, Zalenka started fiddling with the controls but got only background noise.

"We've lost it."

"I can see that! Move over." McKay tried to get it back himself.

"They've stopped broadcasting."

Sheppard's mouth turned down into a scowl. "Looks like the party's already started."

* * *

><p>As the general call to order was broadcast and the multiplicity quieted down the Keepers formally opened the talks. No time was spared on formalities, and the violet eyed Queene began in earnest. <em>"Fellow Queens, Keepers- The Future:"<em>

Deep in the nebula the Hive burned, internal fires breathed their short lived furry as explosive decompression swept them into the cold vacuum. A squadron of human fighters closed from the stern pursued by a meagre handful of darts; all that remained of its once thousand strong space wing. Even as they started firing they flashed and vaporized, anti-ship lasers traversing across them. The shadow of a Human destroyer flashed across the skeletal mother ship.

Overhead the rest of the battle group continued on with impunity, unheeding as the Hive finally burst apart.

_The descendants of our Ancestors returned at first relatively harmless, but gathering strength until they united the galaxy against us. The flashes of their canons marking the deaths of thousands of our brothers and sisters. _

On a wraith world a caretakers ushered her charges inside as the sun went out overhead, eclipsed by a formation a thousand strong. And the Queen snarled her fury as the sky burned with kinetic harpoons.

_As more and more victories were won, more and more humans flocked to their cause. Eventually depriving us of a numeric superiority. _

Black Star Alliance and Multi-World fighters zoom through a joint battle group. Flying past Traveler cruisers, Genii battleships, Tau'ri vessels, and FJN warships.

_Slowly they took our worlds one by one, even as we defending each ever more heavily. We united at this time, but it was far too late and far too little. But surrender wasn't an option with extinction as the result, we struck back. A devastating surprise attack of their capital world of Asuras that would hinder their morale and deprive them of critical infrastructure and manpower. _

A wraith battle group emerges in a spherical formation above Asuras and opens fire immediately, concentrating on the weaker ships first, tearing down the enemy's ability to outflank them. As those are overcome they sweep their collective cone of energy blasts over one ship at a time, pausing just enough for it's shields to be overcome and it's hull to suffer critical damage. As they descend into low orbit a shield shimmers over the upper layers of the atmosphere, powered by dozens of ZedPMs. The Hives pause their advance, and bright specs become visible in the morning sunlight as they exit the dart bays, racing towards the planet -and disappear. Having jumped past the shield they illuminate the sky with flashed of radiation, causing the shield above to shimmer slightly. They plow downward, launching fusion charges, and once again hyperspace away before they impact the cityscape. Great swaths of the city are flattened as the charges detonate,

Vaporizing shield generators and drone ports, trapping the archology's war depleted arsenal beneath a curtain of melted alloy. _Victory was so near, their cities ablaze, the majority of their armada turned to flaming husks, and we could almost taste their life force soon to be ruing though our veins. But it was not to be. _

Down below, Atlantis stands alone, a shielded bubble in the mist of the metropolis, and as the first wisps of tailored red falling stars descend upon it, darkness is banished form the metropolis.

Sparks of light ascend from the stricken behemoth; multiply, one hundred becoming two hundred, two hundred into four hundred, four into eight, eight into sixteen, sixteen into thirty-two. And so on the fire spreads, until the entire planet city is alight, dark circles outline the blast zones of the previous bombardment, the light arches upward from Atlantis, now completely obscured under its own nimbus of light as the sparks formed a twisting, erratic beam that jumped from Atlantis upward, travelling into orbit and hitting the Wraith vanguard. Sparks danced over it's hull as the beam remained locked on it, refusing to jump, right until it cut out. Then the Hive burst apart, and the beam snaked out, jumping from the wreckage into other hives, spreading exponentially from one ship to another, like some kind of malignant tumour. Causing any and all in its path to shatter into a thousand pieces until there was nothing left in orbit, every ship, fighter, and missile was destroyed, every hive broken, the remains of the defensive fleet faring no better. The remnants of a weapon pioneered by Anubis a decade before, backed up by the power generation of a planet-metropolis.

_We did destroy a significant fraction of their own combat capable space assets, but they had crippled us, the bulk of our armada was sent on that mission, and none came back. They struck us at our weakest, just growing replacement warships, and one by one by one they hunted us down and slay us. _

A cruiser's spine breaks apart, a high-speed pressure wave cracking the hull apart as the cold fusion chamber bursts open. Another cruiser zooms past, but the looming shadow of a Jaffa Dakara battleship eclipses it's stern, and violent secondary explosions engulf it from stern to bow as it opens fire with the main plasma canons.

In the background a broken hive spins slowly; venting atmosphere and internal fluids, pieces of its exoskeletal hull breaking off. A nuclear warhead goes off inside, and space is illuminated for a split second as the stricken ship finally caves in under the titanic blows of the enemy battle group, who enter hyperspace uncaring, leaving only death and echoes behind.

_Space itself was denied from us, we were forced underground, cowering beneath the dirt, our darts fearing to let the shrill wine of their engines be heard above the treetops. For thirteen years we worked in secret, using our slim power sources to clone our food so as to not attract attention, toiling day and night at the solution that would let is reverse this terrible fate. _

_Eventually, slowly, and secretly, we built us a discrete network of sensory satellites to exploit the latent ability of star gates to create connections to the past and future when certain types of solar flares intersected their wormholes. As we perfected the system further and further, the Enemy finally found us. Their energy blasts ate away at the mountain above us. For three hours this went on, steadily eating at the upper levels of the facility, until there was nothing left save the gate room, where I was sent back with a message: Heed this warning- or perish._

* * *

><p>Atlantis South Pier February 15 2014<p>

O'Neil brought his golf club down gently; eyeing the ball at the time, then swung it up. "General O'Neil, please report to the control room." And smashed it downwards

The shot went wide, splashing in the water behind the buoy. "Arrr! Right in the middle of may back swing!" He turned to Sheppard. "That one didn't count."

"Of course not, sir." Sheppard grinned as he picked up the golf bag and slung it over his shoulder, he'd gotten the same message.

* * *

><p>Atlantis Control Room February 15 2014<p>

"This better be important McKay." O'Neil said as he and Shepard walk in dressed in civvies.

Shepard's mood darkened as the saw the scientist leaning back in his chair, feet propped up on the console, and wires dangling out of his ears. "McKay!" Rodney dropped his feet down and one of the earphones slid out of his ear.

"Huh? What?"

"Why are we here?" O'Neil loomed over him.

"Oh, um… yeah." He tuned around and taped a few keys, causing everyone in the room to look up as the speakers switched on.

"What's that?"

"No idea." Evil look from Shepard. "But it's on all channels, just like the signal before. And-" He enlarged the galactic map on one of the screens. "Our vampire friends are very busy." Red lined plotted the trajectories of Wraith ships, then a set of blue lines appeared, showing different heading. "Before and after, literally, that's a massive fleet redeployment, also-" The various ships turned different colours to show affiliation. "Their cooperating, big time, there some worst enemies getting along like best friends out there."

"Not all of them through." Sheppard motioned at the ones that hadn't changed position at all.

"But enough to significantly increase their overall chances of success in ... whatever they're planning, which we must assume is bad for us. Worst case scenario this is a full unification, just like during the Ancient wars, if that's the case then they will begin sharing technology, resources, even food, but even if it's a temporary alliance, their new deployments orders are putting them within striking distance of dozens of allied worlds." Zalenka pointed out from his station.

"And we don't have enough ships to cover all of these places." O'Neil said half to himself. "All evidence does seem to be pointing to a massed strike against the Coalition." Zalenka conceded. He looked from O'Neil to Shepard. "We should begin evacuating the populations to more easily defended positions."

"Actually that's a really bad idea." McKay went on. "If we group everyone together like that the wraith have a better chance of inflicting larger casualties if they manage to errrrr… breach our defences."

"Woosley won't like it." Grumbled Sheppard.

"Look it's a temporary solution, the moment we can think of something better we'll implement it. But until then the Wraith could strike anytime now, we have twenty eight hours max, and that's assuming they won't do anything until every hive is in place."

"Alight, do it." Said O'Neil.

* * *

><p>"<em>Everything is moving according to schedule, DNA sequences are in transit to the allied Hives, and new deployment orders are being followed." <em>

"_That's always good."_

"_What's' wrong?"_

"_This is where we rewrite history; everything is going to be different now, no more planning in advance."_

"_You've been altering the timeline for some time now. "_

"_But not like this, this is big. It just got… real."_

"_Maybe this will cheer you up, H.E.R.L. is requesting more resources, they say there on the verge of a breakthrough."_

She sighted. "_Aren't they always? What do they need?" _The list of supplies unfolded in her mind and her eyes widened.

"_WHAT? How am I supposed to provide them with those kinds of resources? I have a war looming just ahead."_

"_I would suggest giving them what they need, the recent progress into the replication of the energy extraction and conversion mechanisms means they can now attempt to __generate the origin itself."_

Renette accessed the latest overview. "_This will set us back weeks." _

"_Unavoidable, the technology would give us a significant advantage."_

"_See to it."_

Renette pulled her legs under her and rested her chin on her knees, not really looking at the multicoloured fish swimming in the aquarium.

"_When should we expect-"_

"_SENSOR CONTACTS. Several ships, wraith manufacture, one unidentified, they appear to be in conflict."_

"_Drop us out."_ The shrill wine signalled crew to their stations.

"_Arming weapons, bringing active defences online. Real space transition in three...two...one."_

* * *

><p>Atlantis Control Room February 17 2014<p>

"Your turn." Shepard tossed the rubix cube to chuck.

"Asuras dialling in on schedule." The Gateroom PA announced.  
>John pushed off in his chair, rolling to a stop bumping against the railing overlooking the embarkation area. The usual geek types were coming through; some diplomats (looked Swedish); and trailing along behind were…<p>

"Sheppard calling McKay."

Rodney -dressed in a lab coat- let a scientist take over and acknowledged the call. "Yeah?"  
>"Come over to the control room."<br>"Listen I'm kind of busy right now, what is it?"  
>"Come see for yourself."<br>"I'm in the middle of something important, just tell me what it is."  
>"Listen, come up here, I promise it's worth your while."<p>

"Jennie! Caleb!" McKay rushed over and hugged his sister (who was just a mite weirded out by his public display of affection). "And Madison, wow… you've grown a lot." The thirteen year old rolled her eyes dramatically- obviously not he first time somebody's said that to her that day.  
>"What are you guys doing here?" He looks at the suspiciously large pile of baggage behind them.<br>"Moving in." Caleb said, grinning.  
>McKay's mouth dropped in that way of his. "Huh?"<br>"After five years on Mu, we decided it was time for a change of view. And it would be good for Madison to meet new people."  
>"Wait… you guys are…moving to Atlantis?"<br>Jeanie punched McKay in the shoulder. "Mer!"  
>"No, No, that's great, I'm just a bit surprised. That's all." Rodney looks around kind of confused.<br>"Hey. I hate to interrupt the family reunion, but McKay's fancy timer is just about run out, so we need the embarkation area clear." Sheppard said from the walkway.  
>"Alright, here, let me help you with you bags." Rodney and Caleb grabbed the bags.<br>"Unscheduled off world activation!"  
>The defence team dragged the rest of the bags off the embarkation area swiftly as they hurry off to the side; Jennie pushing Madison as defence teams stepped forwards and the gate kawooshed, iris forming over it automatically.<p>

Both Jennie and McKay appeared in the control room a moment later. "What is it?"  
>Shepard nods to Chuck. "Put it up."<br>"Atlantis Base- please respond. We wish to negotiate. Atlantis Base-… " It started looping after that. "It's the Wraith."  
>"Obviously; what do we do?"<br>"For now… nothing." Shepard looks at the timer counting back through the negatives. "Reset the clock."

The gate shut down as the timer reached thirty-eight minutes. Then an alarm sounded and it reactivated.

"What happened?"

McKay waves Shepard off and begins examining the gate logs. "There was a glitch as our auto-dialler and the wraith one activated the gate at the same time, unfortunately, the wraith one was marginally faster, it established a connection on it's thirty-ninth try."

"Thirty ninth?" O'Neil asked.

"They're repeating the message. No change."

"McKay, can you get this thing to work faster?"

"Of course I can, I just need some more computers, but it won't do us much good. They obviously know we're here, and they're going to keep dialling until they get a response."

"All right, I'll bite- what'cha want?" O'Neil asked across the radio connection.

"_Ahh, General O'Neil I presume." _

"Yeah, yeah, nice meeting you too. But seriously- what do you want?"

"_I presumed the automated message we were transmitting for over half of our hours made our intentions rather... clear." _

"Sure it did, but it was mightily skimpy on specifics."

"_Very well, I represent the massed forces of nearly all Wraith in this galaxy, we have _

_a proposal that could avoid a long, and costly war between us. Our Queen will elaborate during the negotiations." _

"How do we know if you won't just throw in a bomb the moment we lower our shield?"

"_You are welcome to take any security precautions you see it. We will comply."_

* * *

><p>Two lines of marines flanked the gate, extending up to the stairs.<p>

The Primal didn't pause as she stepped though the gate, her scarlet dress didn't impede her movement at all, and the talons high ranking Wraith wore were rested against her side comfortably. Not giving the armed guards a glance as they trained their weapons on her she walked up to the base of the stairs.

"General Jack O'Neil. Colonel John Shepard." She said with a slight accent.

Jack and Sheppard stood at the foot of the steps.

"And you are…"

"Renette will do for the purposes of this meeting."

"You can't bring those in." Sheppard motioned to the talons.

"As you wish." She unclasped them and handed them to Sheppard, who passed them on to a waiting soldier.

A guard detail fell in around her and both officers stepped aside, falling in behind them as they made their way to the conference room while personnel in the control room watched her cautiously as they marched past.

In the conference room Prenum, Silas, Kannan, and Rak'nor sat around the horseshoe shaped table. Renette took the spot in front of the table without hesitation as the guards fanned out around the room. O'Neil, as the host, took the slightly recessed centre chair.

"Alright, we're all here, what is it you want?"

Renette smiled as she looked around. "As you all know, the Wraith are no longer divided, they now answer to me. " She paused to effect. "You also know that your combined forces will be very hard pressed to repel any unified offensive. I hope to avoid a long and pointless war between us today. As you all know, we Wraith must feed on humans in order to survive, we have no choice in the matter, but I am not making excuses."

"As long as you continue culling planets your status as enemy will remain unchanged." Said Silas, the traveller delegate.

"Perhaps we can come to a compromise..."

* * *

><p>Sheppard saw O'Neil coming from the conference room and made his way over. "What did she want?"<p>

"Human sacrifice."

Shepard fell into step with the older officer. "What?"

"Oh, no cutting out harts or anything, she wanted five hundred thousand."

He led Sheppard onto the balcony so they could talk in private. "And she wanted our nanotech files."

"Not even the IOA would agree to that, give her nanotech and she'll be able to build an army of close to frigging indestructible killer robots."

"She wants to set us a series of protected planets, where she'll dump the poor guys, then she'll use nanites to speed up their ageing, a human farm. Said we can engineer the nanites ourselves if we don't want to gave her the files. Makes it sound all very reasonable."

"And in exchange all the Wraith under her stop culling our planets…."

"Yeah."

"What does the council think?"

"Hard to say, but Prenum was practically drooling by the end of her little presentation, the Genii don't really care about the rest of the galaxy as long as their assess are saved. Kannan was totally against it."

"Makes sense, it'll probably be his people who have to give up the most."

"Yeah, Rak'nor didn't like it either, but the Senate might have other opinions when they hear about the Wraith's proposal. The Travellers, don't real care, they're nomadic, they don't have to give up any people, so most likely they'll vote in favour of the wining side. "

"What about us sir?" The breeze picked up.

"I'm seriously considering keeping them in the dark about this one."

"With all due respect sir I don't like it any more than you do, but they'll see it as treason and throw you in prison, and you're the only things standing between them, and tearing this city up to fit their own twisted machinations. We lose you, we lose Atlantis."

"I hate it when your right colonel." He let out a sight. "I better go talk to Woosley."

* * *

><p>Twenty minutes later.<p>

McKay finished his sandwich on the way to the mess hall, lack of sleep, irregular meals, and stress - Jennifer. He really needed to ask her out to dinner or something. It was all piling up, his pile of paperwork was getting high enough to topple, he needed a secretary- yeah, first thing in the morning he'd dump it all on Kavanag's desk. Uggg, but he was hungry.

Two marines were outside the door to the mess hall- pointing in. Atlantis didn't need a police force; internal sensors did away with that, what the heck was going on?

He rounded the corner into the mess to find most people clustered at the edges; staring, and trying not to stare, at the centre table.

McKay looked at the cook and pointed at the table, her look told him it wasn't sleep depravation. "Yeah. I didn't think I'd get that lucky." He turned back toward the table. "Madison!"

The teen chocked on her mouthful and both ladies turned to stare at him.

"Ah, Doctor McKay, please join us." The Wraith Queen took a sip of her fruit juice, then impaled a grape from her salad with her finger guards.

The sight of a Wraith eating food momentarily placated McKay's outrage.

"Wait, Wraith only eat food during their childhood, how old are you really?"

"Doctor; you should know better than to ask a lady her age." She answered with a coy smile.

Madison moved over unobtrusively to let him sit down, keeping her head low as she sipped her own drink.

"Don't change the subject. What could you two be possibly talking about?"

"The Ancients. It's not easy finding information on their actual history." Madison said, hopping to disarm Rodney's anger a bit.

"Indeed, the Lantians are a most fascinating species, the Wraith have little history of them before the war."

* * *

><p>"How's lunch?" Sheppard asked.<p>

"Weird actually, heard what happened?"

"Yeah, listen Rodney, I didn't expect Madison, or anybody to-"

Rodney waved him off. "It's not your fault." His expression turned sour through. "Jeanie's furious, not just at Madison either, I've let her down."

"Listen, If anyone' to be blamed, it's me, I let the guards take her to he mess."

"But I was there, I mean, I'm her uncle, and instead of pulling her out of there, I sit down and have a chat with our mortal enemy?"

Sheppard paused. "When you put it like that."

"I feel terrible."

"You told me."

McKay slumped in his chair.

"Talk about it later.' He slapped Rodney shoulder. "The axe's about to drop."

After a closed session in the conference room, it looked like they had an answer after three hours of negotiation. The panels had swung open to admit Renette, and the last of her guard disappeared inside.

Renette clasped her hands behind her back as she faced the council.

Silas spoke. "The Lantean Coalition has considered your proposal, and an unanimous decision has been reached. However we must decli-"

Renette spun so fast she was a blur, the guard behind her was wrenched of his feet as she grabbed him and used him as a human shield while firing his weapon without bothering to extract his fingers from the grip first.

Her guards were hit point blank, hollow points burrowed though the Kevlar of their vests and wised into their midsection, the councilmen fell backwards off their chair in their hurry to get out of the line of fire, an action that probably saved their lives.

The panels swung open a second after the gunfire was first heard, Shepard had his sidearm out by then and McKay was halfway to the floor, along with most of the staff. Renette flew out, Sheppard's shot landed on the sorry bodyguard hurtling along with her. She fired again, Shepard wend down, and the security teams opened fire cautiously, conscious of the civilians in the room.

Renette rocked around the control room, her actions unimpeded by scared technicians, taking cover behind consoles as windows shattered, she slid to the central station and smacked a button down, then leaped though the shattering glass, balanced on the rail overlooking the gateroom for a split second, and took a flying leap at the opening jumper bay doors- wall jumping off of them into the bay itself.

Urgent cries for medical attention and wails of pain washed over the control room as the firing subsided and half the security teams rushed down a corridor towards the jumper bay.

Renette limped into a jumper; long purple lines crept downwards on her dress from multiple gun wounds, mostly into the left thigh, and sealed the door behind her. The jumper's avionics booted up as she walked into the cockpit and gently lowered herself into the seat while the heads up display appeared on the canopy showing the schematic of the jumper bay.

* * *

><p>A fountain of flame and debris arched upwards from the control tower as the upper bay doors were slagged by a drone and a jumper flew out with reckless acceleration.<p>

McKay put his hands out to stop himself collapsing on top of Sheppard, slipping and cutting his hand on a piece of glass as the tower shook.

"What's... happening?" Sheppard asked through clenched teeth.

McKay's eyes were wide as his head moved rapidly from side to side, panicking. "I have no idea!"

"Rodney. Get. A. Grip. Find out."

McKay let out an unidentifiable sound, then stood up shakily and staggered over to a console as a muffled vibration raced thought the tower superstructure. He taped the crystals a few times before a damage control screen popped up, highlighting two long red streaks beneath Atlantis' north and northwest piers. "McKay to Atlantis Jumper wing; scramble your jets! Intercept the rogue jumper!" His voice was steady as he observed another piece of the star drive destroyed.

A deep shrilling alarm sounded as the city picked up hostile spacecraft on immediate hyperspace approach. McKay turned towards the screen behind him permanently dedicated to monitoring Lantean space and his face visibly fell.

Above Lantia a Hive emerged from hyperspace, it's hull pitch black, bristling with external turreted weapons, and heavily armoured superstructure. It's drives flared white and engine trails twisting into complex helices as it corkscrewed to avid any shortly incoming fire.

A flight of four jumpers arched over Atlantis, hunting for their rogue brother. Any more of the interceptor craft and airborne collision would become a serious risk in the confines of such a small area. Their HUDs reconfigured at a thought and displayed the location of the rogue jumper both as a red icon on the screen and as a pulsing dot on their theatre maps.

"Destroy the enemy jumper."

They swooped down from above, drones glowing in deployed weapons pods.

Renette was in the clear between piers, and another of her drones exploded against Atlantis' superstructure.

"Fire when ready." Four drones raced ahead, but their target dived towards the ocean, twisting upside down and closing drive pods as it submerged beneath the pier. Using the jumper's sloped nose to carve a very tight, supercavitating turn beneath the city, two of the jumpers didn't match the manoeuvre, unaware of the hydrodynamics involved, and spun out, curving downwards and critically damaging exposed drive pods as bubbles of air were created and collapsed over their components, the other two raced through the spires to the other side of the pier.

Millions of years of technological innovation, building better, faster, smarter weapons, and another few thousand of tactical innovation and invention had dictated close range combat between air craft obsolete, forever doomed to history specials while modern fighters fought from further and further away. However here, after all this time; this battle devolved into the most primal type of aerial combat: the Dogfight.

Renette raced for the next pier as drones were fired after her, without enough time for evasive manoeuvres she fired the last one of her drones into the superstructure, making a hole big enough for her jumper, the drones after her created a cascade of debris behind the jumper as their warheads deactivated and they slammed into the alloy walls like artillery shells.

Her jumper on the other hand flew through the relatively empty (or easily broken) upper superstructure and entered the middle gap in the pier, where it veered off towards the central island. Pilots Gregory Nicholas and Ivete Kipling followed.

Renette dived into the space between the sheets of apartments and labs that made up Atlantis' trademark finger nail shaped skyscraper, The jumper's engines left a light trail behind it in the darkness as they weaved in and out of the superstructure connecting the different parts of the building together. Kipling and Nicholas closed with their prey, following her erratic course, but the dizzying lights and complete darkness made it hard to launch drones on visual guidance alone (a requirement as the drones did not recognize the enemy jumper as a foe), an hesitation Renette exploited- pulling up vertically and smashing through a support girder, bringing the thing down on top of one of the jumpers, Kipling's jumper wend wild as the weight of the support threw her craft off balance, slamming into one of the walls…

* * *

><p>"DRAVEC contact! Wraith Hive in theatre!" The Athena's computers updated her alert status to DEFCON 1, and lighting fixtures dimmed. The ship's engines glowed to life and it's weapons warmed up as per protocol. On the bridge a holographic display faded into existence above the Colonel's head.<p>

"_Surprise exists only in the mind of the commander, it is a fictional element with no real bearing on the real world."_ Training had permanently burned that line into Colonel Alexandra Terekovs mind, and she took the current situation without metaphorically missing a step.

"Plot firing solution, fire directed energy armament when ready."

The Athena's solid bulk responded like the thoroughbred she was, twisting on it's axis to line up as many of its DEWs with the enemy as possible- and opened fire. Terekov fixed the throbbing icon of the Hive with her ice blue eyes. "Jump to missile range."

The dreadnaught jumped perpendicular to the alien mother ship, doing a flip to align her E.L.S. silos perfectly, giving them a clear shot.

"ELS tubes to continuous rapid fire. Begin full spectrum electronic warfare."

**Radiological Alarm**

**Inbound Enemy Fire**

Bright red packets of self contained plasma descended on the Athena, the Hive's raised turrets swivelled, tracking the ship, pouring plasma from multiple barrels, firing at a rate never before displayed by any of the leviathan vessels.

The bridge shook and the lights flickered madly, and the hologram went out. "Shield integrity across forward quarter falling, thermal stress to glacis plate and forward energy armaments!" Reported the damage control officer behind her.

"Ma'am! Reinforcements in theatre!"

* * *

><p>The shield closed over Atlantis as Renette shot into open air, her jumper doing a back flip as it used the breaking thrusters to stall it's upwards velocity to zero, then diving perpendicular to the building's side. The spectacular cone trails left by the glowing thermal exchange circuits on the drive pods resembled a wild roller coaster track.<p>

Nicholas shot overhead, flying with his nose pointed down to get the best shot, but Renette slammed into the glass wall of the building, creating an avalanche of glass to cover her jumper. Behind her; a dark gash grew out from the immaculate surface of the fin like structure. The drone he sent after her cut out and disappeared amongst the falling debris.

She veered sharply upwards twisting around the control tower, while he raced higher for a bird's eye view and- hopefully- a clear shot.

No such luck, the rogue jumper manoeuvred through the urban maze of Atlantis deftly, keeping out of sight beneath overhanging walkways and towers long enough to prevent a lock. Nicholas dived to meet her as she sped through. As he powered a drone, ready for a quick shot as they flew past each other-

Renette watched with satisfaction as the jumper hit an overhang in an unexpected, and seemingly unfounded climb; falling into the ocean. The moment, however, was short lived, she was out of drones, and suddenly her HUD beeped urgent warnings of multiple drones closing. The cities defences were coming online, somebody was manning the chair. She couldn't throw off the dozens of munitions guided by city wide inputs slaved into the control chair. The Wraith Queen braked upwards and passed through the shield, cloaking on the other side.

* * *

><p>The Human Wing opened fire on the Hive, volleys of bright indigo bolts flew through space as the ships fired in stages. Still it focused as many of it's weapons as it could on the Athena.<p>

Meanwhile the missiles launched at the begging of the engagement closed on the hive. "Fifteen seconds to contact on missile flight one." reported Terechov's tactical officer as the red arrowheads moved across the iconographic display on the tactical display.

Around the Hive, tale tale trails of culling beams swept the space around the ship of any projectile based munitions, gobbling up the evasive missiles in a flash of light.

**MISSILE FLIGHT INTERCEPTED** reported the ship's computer.

Terechov stood up looking at the blinking announcement on the screen. The Athena's tubes were loaded with second generation smart munitions, designed with limited AI programmed for evasion…"Power down ELS! Divert power to PBCs!"

The Athena's hull was hot, the Wraith weapon's were getting through the falling shield, and unshielded sensors threw out puffs of smoke as they were fused.

"We're losing shields! The armour won't take it!" Terechov snapped her eyes onto the panicking officer. "Helm, bring glacis plate to bear."

Alaxandra was driven against the ropes, her opponent furiously pounding away at her. "Elbows together! Move! Move! Don't let her pin you!" She strikes out, trying to gain an advantage, but receives another beating. Blood pounds through her ears, dulling the sharp voice of her instructor as her head gets thrown from side to side. Dropping her exhausted arms she staggers right into a knock out punch.

Terechov collapsed into the command chair hard, panting as she wipes the sweat off her forehead, blood rushing to her ears.

"Shields down-direct hit to forward emitter, direct power feed impossible! Forward DEWs hit! Glacis pate overheating!"

"Hive ship entering atmosphere, no de-accelera-" The Bridge went deathly quiet around Terechov as she stood up , her chest almost toughing the barrel of the Beretta now aimed at her by an uncontrollably shaking helmsman.

"Lieutenant, explain yourself."

"I'll do it! Swear to god I'll do it! Don't come any closer!"

"Return to your post helmsman."

The panicking officer held the gun in a shacking.

"Lower your _sidearm__Lieutenant!_" Terechov stood in front of her chair and faced the cowering officer holding a gun pointed at her.  
>"Drop it!" Marines rush through the bridge hatch. A gunshot rings as an awesome light blinds everyone on the bridge.<p>

* * *

><p>The Hive turned a blinking yellow as it moved through the red haze that represented the Lantian atmosphere on Rodney's screen.<p>

Enemy Launch Detected

Inbound Kinetic Ordinance

The system's alert box appeared on the screen as multiple pulsating dots separated from the mothership, descending in a drawn out helix. A blinking message appeared underneath.

Fatal Damage Potential

"Oh no."

Shepard cried out as a medic pushed some kind of gun into his wound and pressed the trigger, making a hissing sound as it sealed the wound.

"What?"

McKay's hands flew over his laptop's keyboard as he sought more control over the City's ailing systems. "The Wraith just launched kinetic impactors, without the inertial dampeners the city will fly like a tossed coin!"

"What Wraith?"

Rodney continued typing as Shepard screamed again when the medics lifted him onto a stretcher.

All around the city automated railgun platforms swivelled under new orders and trained their muzzles towards the sky, opening fire.

Long purple streaks erupted upwards from the city as the projectiles superheated the air they passed through, and some of the incoming kinetic harpoons split into multiple parts and veered of target, blown into bits.

"Turn on the stardrive!" Rodney yelled at the hazy technicians.

Above Lantia, the cloud over the ocean glowed, illuminated from beneath. The darkness from the storm was banished and the drops of rain vaporized and thrown aside by continuing shock-waves.

Inside the city, the shield turned nearly completely opaque, seeking to block out harmful levels of energy.

McKay followed a slight curve as the was thrown back form his console, finally slamming into the stack of computers at the back of the room. Shepard rolled off his stretcher as the two paramedics fell down.

The city began turning, slowly but surely the western pier rose further and further out of the water, the ocean already trapped inside the shield retreating, flooding the eastern pier first, then others as the city's angle became more and more acute.

McKay held on to the leg of a console as the floor continued to tilt beneath him. He grabbed Shepard as he slid by, realizing his friend and commander was out for the count. The floor kept tilting. Stacks of Human computers toppled over and slid across, hitting the guardrail and breaking apart on their way down through the gate room, finally smashing through the window at it's end. With a earth shattering series of thuds, a jumper tumbled through the open hatch, it's full un-dampened mass denting the edge as it fell over and smashed the gate off it's stand, sending both tumbling into the wall below them, leaving a large dent before gravity turned them once again and both disappeared through a shattered window.

Technicians and marines hung from and on consoles and railings, fighting gravity as the city kept turning.

McKay watched as his home fell apart, outside black specs rained into the ocean from the city, all sorts of debris breaking loose.

* * *

><p>Chuck hung over his console, legs planted at it's base and hands clutching the front edge of it, furious red lights flashing across his laptop as he rushed to disable safety protocols.<p>

* * *

><p>Inside the conference room chairs and people slid across the floor, some catching on the legs of the table, most simply coming to a rest against the opposite wall. Startled delegates awkwardly tried to find their balance while paramedics tried to keep their patients alive.<p>

* * *

><p>Medical equipment and drugs fell from their shelves, shattering when they hit the floor and slid towards the outer wall and patients grabbed the edge of their beds.<p>

* * *

><p>Jennifer took hold of one of the bubbling light fixtures and tried to get to her patients, but an Ancient scanner came free of it's restraints and dove into the bubbling fluid, it's scanner arm piercing through and dislodging the doctor, who fell into the wall amid a shower of glass.<p>

* * *

><p>Lorne grabbed one of his men by the back of his tactical vest and pulled him back into the corridor, then dropped on his belly to get to another one, hanging from a protrusion in the wall, pulling him up as one of the jumpers slid from it's harness and tumbled into the gate room below.<p>

* * *

><p>Banks got an elbow over the side of the door leading into the gate room and started pulling herself up when a cry above her turned her head, and she automatically reached out, catching the unlucky marine's hand. Then her eyes widened in surprise as her grip on the ledge started slipping. Clutching the edge of the door with the tips of her fingers, she had long enough to look down and see the jagged glass of the broken window and the horror stricken face of the man she'd thought she had saved before they both- jerked to a hard stop in mid air.<p>

Ronon grunted as he started lifting them both.

* * *

><p>"Mom!" Madison grabbed the edge of the door frame and pulled herself into the small office. "Madison. Come here." Jeanie threw packed boxes to the side and motioned Madison to the corner. "Caleb!" Her husband managed to negotiate the increasing slope of the floor and awkwardly made his way towards them.<p>

"What's going on…." Jeanie looked at her daughter for a second before taping her earpiece.

* * *

><p>Zalenka yelled at his colleagues to get out, swearing in Czech when they were too slow, they stormed out of the cafeteria and sealed the door behind them, catching a glimpse of tables sliding across the cafeteria floor and the counter overflowed as semi liquid food spilled over the edge, falling to the floor at a steep angle.<p>

Teyla shut the door to her quarters, preventing any of the belonging inside to tumble into the corridor and taped her earpiece. "Toren!".

* * *

><p>Veins stood out in McKay's arms and neck stood up as he held Sheppard, one arm threaded beneath his armpits and the other griping the leg of a control console, now hanging nearly perpendicular to the floor of the control room.<p>

McKay turned his face upward, towards the console's normally uninteresting crystal buttons, alight with information now that the human laptops had ripped out of their connections and fallen away. Shepard's weight was ripping his shoulder out of it's socket, and his fingers were going numb.

Shepard or the city….

He looked down, then turned his furious face upwards, towards the console. He rose upward, lifting both of them with only one hand, veins bulging out unnaturally as adrenaline rushed through them, blood flowing into Shepard's jacket from the cut on his hand. "ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" Propping Shepard against the console's leg, he raised himself high enough to swing his friend over the same leg and hung him like a towel over it. Then he brought his hand down over the throbbing red crystal.

The city attained ninety degrees compared to the boiling ocean surface. Inside the shield the city's buildings were dark shadows on a darker background, little specs peeling away form them and falling into the ocean now completely flooding the eastern pier and the edges of the south and north eastern ones. Then the stardrive burst to life.

Shepard lifted a tired eyelid, seeing the nearly bare control room through the foggy edges of his vision. People littered about every which way looking up and groaning. Broken shards of glass and personal accessories clustered at the balcony side of the room. He looked through the devastated gateroom, a roaring sound piercing his deafened ears. As he watched through the jagged hole in what used to be a beautiful; stained glass window the seas burst over the city, foamy white as it rolled upwards, streaking heavenwards around the city, falling _up_…

* * *

><p>"Ou ou ou ou!" McKay complained as a medic put his arm into a sling and attached it around his neck by the light of a desk lamp. "Looks like you tore a muscle or two. You'll need surgery later."<p>

"Yeah, yeah- Ou!- can I just have something for the pain now?" The medic fixed him with s stern gaze then swiftly got out some cotton and disinfectant and sterilized a piece of Rodney's exposed shoulder. "This won't hurt a bit." He took the cap off the syringe with his teeth and inserted the needle into McKay's arm.

"OW!"

"This'll do for a few hours, that shoulder needs tending to ASAP."

McKay got off he chair freeing it up from someone else and taped his earpiece. "Radek, can you hear me?"

"Yes Rodney?"

"Where are you?"

"Auxiliary control room, central island. I'm trying to get some damage control parties out."

"Ok good, any idea on how the city fared?" A loud crash followed by some Czek swearing followed over the radio. "Not a lot. We're still trying to return this place to it's previous state."

"All right, get back to me if you have anything important."

The PA system blared through the city as McKay strode into the grim control room, technicians were struggling to patch and jury rig displays and interfaces while one tackled the broken glass and debris with a broom. "All personnel who require immediate medical attention please contact public services. All personnel with relatively serious wounds are asked to make their way to the nearest medical facility, All personnel with minor injuries are asked to remain in their quarters, you will be attended to in time. We remind everyone to keep off the city's intercom system in order to avoid saturating it's operational capacity."

McKay paid no heed as he took the gate operations console. "Alright…" Pressing buttons. "Local naqudah boosters disabled, central power flow to the gate-cut. Will somebody attend to the gaping hole in our floor now!" Eerie green light played across the roof of the gate room as the ocean acted as a massive moon pool to the overturned city. "NOW!"

O'Neil limped in with a heinous four toed medical cane. Sighting, Rodney made his way over. "Ah General. Look, I need you to get on the horn, get one of yours to the nearest planet, have them grab the gate and bring it over, were gonna need a replacement until we find ours- in fact, get a jumper out searching for it."

"Woosley and Shepard are both out of commission right now doctor, which makes me the senior official in charge, and I'm not doing anything until I know what exactly what's going on." He hissed.

"Ok, err… long story short, the Wraith vixen shot up our inertial dampeners, missed one thankfully, and her Hive -I'm assuming it was hers- jumper in, ignored and took the combined pounding of every ship in orbit, and launched a massive salvo of kinetic harpoons- you know, orbital kinetic bombardment- Project Thor- Rods From God?" O'Neil nodded. "Well, without most of our inertial dampeners the city couldn't hold stable, and-" He made a flipping motion with his palm. "- Back flip."

"Now I need a gate here so I can dial Asuras and get the parts and manpower I need to put what she broke back together."

"Alright, just… keep me in the loop."

"I'm sorry, it's just hectic right now with the star drive draining power and the possibility of the artificial gravity failing at any moment and all-"

"Please! Get to it…" O'Neil turned and limped out again, taping his earpiece in the process.

"All right…" Rodney turned back to the gate, but seeing people already on that, decided do tackle the power issue.

* * *

><p>"Here." Radek put a cup of steaming coffee next to McKay's hand, who looked up from the work he was doing on a laptop. The two are alone in the ZPM room on Atlantis.<p>

"Oh thanks." He takes the cup and takes a long swallow only to whimper when he realizes it's too hot. "Hoorroooottt!" He gurgles through a full mouth, finally swallowing the liquid. "Mmmm! Could you have warned me?"

"I thought it was obvious."

"Looks like it wasn't!"

Radek rolled his eyes at his own computer, behind McKay. "How far are you on overriding those safety interlocks?"

"Slowly, the Ancients were a pretty through bunch."

"You know you could ask her to help, it would go faster."

"Who?"

"Your sister Rodney…?"

"Oh, yes, well…" He taps his earpiece. "Jeanie, this is McKay, come in." Static answered his call. "Jeanie Miller, please com in." More static. "Hey, did we loose internal communications during the attack?"

Zalenka pushed his glasses back up his nose and quickly checked something on a different computer. "Ahhhhhh- yes, it seem multiple local nodes have short circuited when they flooded."

"Well that explains it..." He looks dejectedly at the computer before moving to sit down once again.

"Will all department heads please report to the conference room immediately for a staff meeting. All department heads to the conference room."

Rodney let out a sight of relief. "Never thought I'd be happy to hear that." He looks around the room. "Could you take over?"

"Yes, sure."

"Alright, thanks." Rodney moved off stretching his hands.

* * *

><p>McKay joins the trickle of people into the conference room, coming among the last, some seem to have been here for some time, and seemingly taking a break from their duties and catching up on lost meals by the looks of all the takeout on the table, sharing space with hardcopy and digital damage reports. At the head of the table Woosley seems dissatisfied with the situation, but lenient given the circumstances.<p>

"Ah, doctor, now we can begin." He looks around the table and the folding stairs, and the people leaning against the wall one last time. "First let's reiterate the events leading up to our current situation so we're all on the same page, General O'Neil, in the absence of colonel Shepard you're the ranking military officer here, could you summarize what happened?"

McKay helped himself to the pepperoni pizza and sodas as he listened, pausing his ad hock dinner to comment or ask questions or give explanations. He delivered his own damage report. Net seeing Keller he decided she was probably too busy tending to patients.

"Now, doctor Lam is temporarily in charge of Atlantis' medical department as I understand doctor Keller was incapacitated?"

Lam squared her back as attention focused on her. "Yes, she's currently unconscious after suffering a rather heavy concussion."

McKay snapped upright. "What? How?"

"Doctor…" Woosley's voice was unnervingly clear, but McKay didn't think he'd raised his voice, then her realized it wasn't Woosley who was louder, it was everybody in the room was silent. Everyone was looking at him. His outburst must have been more dramatic than he'd thought.

"Could I be excused?"

"Of course."

* * *

><p>The hallways were busy with technicians coming from Asuras to help repair the damage and Atlantian families and non-essential personnel moving to the gate room to be housed in Asuras while repairs where underway, but McKay was alone with his thoughts as he walked the familiar route to the infirmary. Soon the technicians gave way to patients lined up head to toe at the sides of the hallway, tended to by overworked orderlies, nurses, and volunteers.<p>

As he got neared the infirmary, everything became more and more crowded, until he decided to ask on of the nurses for information.

"Err…Excuse me." The petite Asian woman ignored McKay as she finished wrapping a clean bandage around a man's chest. "Yes?" She said turning away and already looking to the next patient. "I was wondering if you know where Doctor Keller is?"

"Incapacitated." She took out an ancient medical scanner and slid the mechanism over the head of a woman whose temple was bandaged. "Yes I know, do you know where she is right now?"

She turned to him with an exasperated sight. "Look, we're very busy here, and having every relative, friend, and well wisher crowd our staff looking for their loved ones won't help matters a bit."

"Promise not to tell."

She looked at McKay's pleading face, and sighted, her resolve melting. "The patients who've been stabilized are being beamed to crew quarters on the west pier, levels three through nine, ask around there."

"Thank you." He said sincerely, and ran off, leaving the nurse to her duties.

* * *

><p>The unchanging beep of the heart rate monitor was shortly overruled by the sounds of hustle and bustle of the hallway as McKay opened the door, and then faded back as it slid shut with a whoosh.<p>

Keller lay on the low bed, hooked up to the hastily set up monitors in the alien surroundings of someone else's quarters, a white bandage wrapped around her head.

"Oh man…" Rodney quietly sat on the edge of the bed. "I shouldn't be standing here now, this ought to be the other way round."

"McKay, where are you? I need some help with the artificial gravity system." came Radek's voice over his ear piece.

"Well of course you do." He taped his earpiece. "I'll be right there."

He looked down at Jennifer's face one more time, he frowned with worry but stood up. As the doors closed behind him his face lit up and he snapped his fingers as something hit him. "Jeanie's quarters are around here." He whispered.

Walking down the corridor he checked the numbers on the apartment doors. 1403, 1405, 1407, 1409…The door a few meters away was open and light from the inside spilled out into the hallway. 1411, 1413- 1415. McKay stopped in the doorway to the open room, his face and upper chest lit up in turquoise light. As he stepped inside the caught the smell, it smelled… like blood. He hurried forward into the next room apprehensive- and straight into hell. He recoiled backwards, sleeve flying to his nose to cover the smell, blood covered the floor, the bottoms of cardboards boxes had taken on it's colour, and where the wall should have been, he could see the next apartment., and the one after that, and the one after that.

McKay staggered about and fell down against the wall, looking back the saw what he'd tripped over- a body bag- two body bags. "Oh no…" The whisper came out hoarse. "Nonnononon-no." He Reached out and took the zipper on the bag nearest to him, then close his eyes and pulled, using his sleeve to once again cover the smell, and peaked- then promptly wipped his head to the side and retched.

Thee was no head- just… a horrific tangle of bone and flesh at the neck. He puked again, wiping his mouth with the edge of his sleeve, his face and hands pale as paper, he took the zipper one more time, taking three tried to grab with his shaking hands, and pulled it lower. It'

"It's her shirt, she wore the same thing when I saw her today." He let the zipper go and collapsed backwards against the wall. "It's her…." Tears streamed down his face "It's her…." And then it hit him "Two body bags… two…"

* * *

><p>The soft beeping of the monitoring equipment formed a white noise as the surgeons worked around the table. "Ok, I'm cutting the optic nerve now." He looked up at the monitors for any change, then satisfied went back to work. " Alright, removing the left eye." He lifted the dead organ out with a sucking noise. "That's one crappy souvenir." He said putting it down with bloodies gloves on the tray offered by a nurse, his black humor going unnoticed. The eye hit the tray it with a chink, a large piece of debris lodged firmly in it splitting the iris in half. "left eye extraction due to irreparable penetration damage by unidentified object in patient number one-five, last name: Miller, successful. Let's clean up and bring in the next one."<p>

* * *

><p>"Alright, I'm here, let's get started." O'Neil hobbled in supported by his recently acquired cane and took a seat next to Shepard, now apparently recovered but with a blue medical cast visible where it bulged out his uniform on his right shoulder. Woosley and Caldwell were also present, along with Zelenka, who was busy taping away at his tablet and talking through his earpiece at the same time, apparently coordinating repair teams through the city.<p>

"All right." Shepard tried to cover a yawn with his hand but his cast immobilized his shoulder and he had to use his other hand. "The Wraith know where we are, so they could show up at any time with a fleet."

"And now that they're all one big dysfunctional family again, they could come at us with hundreds of ships." O'Neil took a swing from his coffee cup.

"Exactly sir, and the city's up side down, and Zelenka tells me with all the damage we took, there's a possibility the artificial gravity might fail, which needless to say would be bad." He paused and looked around the table. "So, what do we do?"

"Could we sink Atlantis? Like the Ancients did during the first Wraith War?" Woosley suggested.

"Yes, if we can repair the mechanism that allowed for it, but even if we did and it kept the city safe, if the Wraith have even a shred of tactical ability, which we must assume they do, they would blockade the planet and bring a gate to stop us using our own." Zalenka offered.

"We're on a flying city…" O'Neil looked to the others trailing off.

"Move the city?" Woosley looked sceptical.

"The Ancients did it in the past. Wha' d'ya say doc?" Said Shepard raising his eyebrows at Radek.

Zalenka pushed his glasses further up his nose. "We would have to repair the inertial dampeners completely before we even entertain it."

"We don't have the time, those things are the size of small skyscrapers." Shepard said. "Isn't there anything else we could do?"

Radek sighted and pushed his glasses up again absentmindedly as he looked into the distance, then took a mug of coffee and took a long gulp; then his eyes went wide and he tried to say something, but ended up chocking on his coffee. "Mhh, ghaaa! Atlantis has enough docking ports for six Celestia class battleships, it might be possible to secure them to the city and use their inertial dampeners, boosted by Atlantis' own ZPM network to emulate the effects of the city's own inertial dampening system."

The present company looked at him with raised eyebrows after his rushed outburst.

"Pulling six out of Asuran space would leave it without it's main line of defence." Woosley cautioned.

"It has a planetary shield to fall back on, and the Wraith don't know where it is. I'll get the ships."

"I think we're all getting ahead of ourselves here. Before this city can fly we have to reorient it so it's pointing up."

Sheppard stood and looked at the diagram of the city on one of the screens of the conference room. "Maybe not…" He turned to Zalenka. "Can we open a hyperspace window and fly the city down into the water?"

Zalenka looks at him surprised. "That could work."

"Err… Can't we just fire two of our stardrive strips and flip the city over?" O'Neil interjected.

"Normally, yes, but with the city's IDS incapacitated, and the less than ideal replacement with Celestia class warships could lead to complications."

"Complications?"

"The city could snap in half."

"Complications. Right."

"Alright, I had better get to work. This will require thousands of lines of code." Zalenka started closing his laptops and picking up his gear, effectively ending the meeting. "I'll see if I can get you some help." Sheppard said as he made for the door.

"Actually Colonel, I have another job for you." O'Neil grabbed his cane.

"Your to take the material we've gathered on the Wraith attack here and present it to the Coalition Council at Manus Cear, it's their fall back base. Then return to Atlantis once your finished."

Shepard looked uneasy. "Sir, isn't there anyone else you could send?"

"Sheppard, this has been the largest coordinated assault on the Coalition in history, the Wraith have hit every major outpost we have from Gateway to the Delta Site, casualty estimates are at in the thousands, I need you to get me the intell."

Sheppard looked like he was going to protest. "You have your orders Colonel." O'Neil said in a softer tone as he stood, leaning on his cane.

"Yes sir."

And on that note, O'Neil watched him go with a sad expression before casting a look behind him at Woosley packing his things; and limped off.

* * *

><p>"How's he doing?" O'Neil asked as Lam joined him at the window looking into a room where McKay is dozing on a chair in between the beds of Madison and Keller.<p>

"Well, I moved both into the same room, this way he isn't shuttling between them constantly, but… I don't know…" She pause and looked at O'Neil slightly awkward. "Their both going to be alright, but… it's him I'm worried about."

"Heck." O'Neil said under his breath.

McKay woke up startled, bumping into O'Neil's' snapping fingers. "Ow!" A hand rose up to soothe a poked eye. "What's happening?"

"Jeez, you look terrible doc."

O'Neil was right, Rodney's eyes were bloodshot, his clothes crumpled, and a tale tale stubble was visible around his chin.

"You holding up alright?"

"I... I don't know…"

"Listen McKay, the Wraith know where Atlantis is right now, they could come at us anytime now, the city's pretty banged up, so we need you up in the control room, Zalenka's got a crazy plan that might just work, but I'd prefer if you took a look at it."

McKay looked around; first at Keller then at Madison. "I can't leave…"

"Rodney, listen to me, they're both fine, right now, the best way for you to help them is to get this city off-world, where the Wraith won't be able to find us. I've known Doctor Lam for years now, there is nobody you would rather leave them with." He looked toward Lam who was looking at someone else. McKay looked up as the door opened letting in a temporary barrage of sound to see Teyla closing it softly behind her. She motioned O'Neil out with a slight tilt of her head.

"Listen; I know what it's like.. to lose somebody close, but right now you can't give up, too many people need you right now." He leaned over and put a hand on McKay's shoulder. Then stood up and left, exchanging looks with Teyla on the way out.

* * *

><p>"Alright Zalenka, please give me some-any good news." O'Neil said as he walked into the control room, which has been mostly returned to normal and several shattered screen have in fact been replaced with holographics.<p>

"I'm afraid not." He turned his laptop so O'Neil could take a look at the complex diagrams and graphs being displayed. "Doc… are the squiggly lines supposed to mean anything?"

Raked let out a sigh and pushed his glasses up his nose. "My initial estimates on the mating of the Celestia class warships and the synchronization of their inertial dampening field were far too optimistic, it could take weeks to complete the job."

"Any way to get it moving faster?"

"I'm afraid not. In the meantime, we should evacuate as many people as we can, there's still a slight danger that our artificial gravity could become inactive at any time."

O'Neil brought his hand up to rub his temple as he contemplated this. "Alright, keep at it." Then almost to himself. "I've got a speech to write."

* * *

><p>February 18, 2015<p>

"Things are moving too fast now." Renette mused in the semi-darkness of her quarters, he aquarium's blue radiance disappearing into a black void on her red robe but reflecting vividly off her pale blue green skin. "Too mulch's been changed.." And silently to herself: There's no going back. "…we can't depend on the history of the future anymore, too many variables have been altered with unknown ramifications."

"This was fully expected, you should not have grown so dependent on your measure of prescience." The Hive chided.

Renette let out the mental equivalent of a hum as she brought her feeding hand up and examined it slowly. She could feel the forces she'd set in motion in action around her, in the walls of her ship, in the unbalanced nutrient mix flowing through them, side effects of the reclamation of darts, she could see the converging courses of Wraith battle groups and knew the destruction left in their wake through the status reports, felt the panic of the spiking comms chatter from the Coalition, like a butterfly, she'd beat her wings, and now she waited for the hurricane to come about, for that critical instant.

"The modifications to the jumper are complete, the strike complement is ready and my crew has completed the necessary modification to myself." The Hive went on. "We should delay this operation until the Alterran gene therapy can bear fruit, the practical rewards of success are nothing compared to the risk of your death."

"It won't matter, the Order is formed, someone will take my place, the Wraith species will not go extinct."

"Yet somehow I doubt you care for the fate of your species as much as you do for whatever hidden schemes-within-schemes you've spun since the days before I was grown."

Renette smiled at this none too subtle confrontation from her ship.

"You forget what I risked and continue risking to have elevated you into sentience- Abomination." She thought, ruefully using the Wraith mind-trem for sentient ships.

"And I'm quite grateful." Came the response, shimmering with humour at the obvious deflection. "But you know how difficult it can become to keep the threads separate yet connected alone." The question of why she didn't trust it hung unspoken.

Renette let out a long hissing sight and dropped her hand, standing up. "I have to feed." She said out loud looking at the torn up dress, soaked with blood and torn through by bullets, and remembering the drain it had on her to heal those wounds.

"I don't understand your compulsion to privacy during this." She felt the ship's disapproval and intrigue at this but kept silent as she erected barriers around her consciousness and prepared her mind.

* * *

><p>February 26, 2015<p>

"All modifications are functioning optimally my lady, the ship is ready." The lead engineer said from behind Renette as she reached out and traced the wraith device secured in the center of the jumper. "The cruiser is ready to take you, I will remain outside the system, if anything should go wrong, signal me. This facility may be valuable, but nowhere near so as you." The hive ship warned.

"Don't worry, this will work, and with the Attero device in my hands, not even the keepers will challenge my ability."

"Perhaps so, but a political defeat won't leave your ashes on the wind."

"It could. But enough of that."

Her honour guard entered the jumper upon a mental command, directing the engineer away as they secured themselves in. Renette sealed the door to the cockpit behind her.

"Approaching target, make ready to drop, opening hatchway." The Wraith officers, encased within a biomechanical powered armour, grabbed on to the large device secured to the jumper's ceiling with one hand and raised bulky integrated cannons with the other. The pressure inside dropped as the hatch opened and the wind caused even the titanic figures of the Wraith to sway. Snowflakes swirled thought the compartments like hornets intent of getting through the thick carbon armour of the alien soldiers who dared invade their home.

In pitch darkness a snowstorm raged over some inhospitable rock of a planet, obscuring everything with it's flurries and the howl of it's winds. Then for just a moment, the darkness parted and the blocky shapes of an ancient outpost and a rectangular, practical star ship parked on the landing pad beside it were revealed as the ship's forward end exploded in a wave of flame, the inferno silhouetting six figures as they dropped though the air holding on to a coffin sized piece of equipment.

Renette cloaked her jumper immediately and swerved aside, heading back up to orbit. "We have them" Her ship's voice held sweet satisfaction at the fact, and Renette saw why as she cleared the storm flying into open night sky. Her ship basked in the moonlight, it's hull shining a soft blue under it's light. "Strike teams have penetrated the facility."

"Let's hope it all goes smoothly."

* * *

><p>February 26, 2015<p>

"Friends, colleagues," A cold dry wind blew some sparse snowflake thought the gathered mass of black clad people, lined along the spaces between marble tombstones. "brothers and sisters in arms." O'Neil spoke from a raised position in front of a large memorial, as Woosley, Sheppard, and several other high ranking personnel form Atlantis stood beside him as he made his address. "We are gathered here today to pay tribute to those who haven't made it to be with us today." O'Neil words are clear against the cold sky and the silent crowd, looking on in orderly rows, standing next to the gravestones of those they'd lost. "Those who were our friends, our colleagues, and our loved ones."

Banks keeps her eyes locked straight ahead as O'Neil continues, next to her, Ronon stands head and shoulders above those around him, clad in a suit a size too small for him. Teyla and Kanan are dressed in Athosian robes, also black and both watch O'Neil as he speaks. Keller, her hair in a tight bun, wipes a tear away furiously with her handkerchief as next to her Rodney looks down in concern at Madison, who looks cut out from marble; wearing a black patch over her left eye, the other one and looking straight ahead without blinking.

Many more men and women stretch out before us, some in dress uniform, some not. These are the mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, husbands and wives of the soldiers, technicians, and civilians that perished a week earlier, mourning their dead, or swearing vengeance.

* * *

><p>People walk in a silent line through the rain to a towering hunk of rock and metal rigged upright in the middle of a field of debris, puddles have formed on either side of the raised path of rubble they are following. At the broken memorial, protected from the rain under the slab of rock and metal rising out of the ground at an angle, they pause to lay down flowers, or offerings, names are scrawled into the mortar and rock with charcoal, and pictures flap in the wind, most black and white but a few in colour. Someone secures a picture in place with some tape at the corners, and as the arm withdraws we see the likeness of Sora, one of the first of the Genii to work with Humanity. Zooming outward, the debris field begins to curve upward into a massive crater, until we realize that these are the now ruins of the Genii underground city.<p>

* * *

><p>It's evening on New Chulak, and as the sun's last rays disappear below the horizon, we see a great platforms stretching several football fields in size. People are gathered around it holding torches, clad in ceremonial robes. The night is eerily quiet, not even the nocturnal bugs can be heard.<p>

A line of people step away from the mass and move toward the wooden platform caring their torches, we now recognize it as a massive funeral pyre for their dead. They pause to say a few quiet words for their loved ones, then looking left and right at the ones besides them, let the torches fall, setting the wood alight and stand back, watching the flames rise into the sky carrying sparks high into the air.

* * *

><p>"It's a cruel world they were forced into, but even knowing the risks, they took the short end of the stick without looking back and never flinched from their duty, and their names will never be forgotten." O'Neil; put his beret on and saluted as he finished his short litany.<p>

"Present arms!" The master sergeant's voice rang clear in the cold air as the seven marines, each standing before the flag of one of the GATO nations raised their rifles and turned, firing into the air.

Deafening thunder rang out over the field of yellowing grass as the people assembled looked upward for the source of the commotion. The sky was torn open by seven meteors in time with the gunshots as seven ships fired their AKEWs through the top of Lantia's atmosphere, their roar audible for hundreds of miles, over the memorial and the people, over the abandoned tent city and Inteli-crystal buildings that had housed thousands of refugees in the early moths of the Asuran war, and over Atlantis where the flags of the seven GATO countries hung at half mast and people looked up into the sky, silently remembering.

* * *

><p>Chekov, looking quite older and greyer in the hair, joins O'Neil as he silently comes down the short steps lading to the memorial and falls into step with him.<p>

O"Neil sights. "If this was just another war, I imagine I'd be asking myself whether this was all worth it." He looks at the horizon as he walks. "Except… there is no alternative is there; Pegasus is our last stand, we've got nowhere left to go." He sights once more and drops his gaze.

"You talk like we've already lost the war General." Chekov said; trying to dampen O'Neil's gloom.

"We may just General."

The two rivals walk off; seeming to have put side their differences, or perhaps they simply cannot be bothered with them under such circumstances.

* * *

><p>The wind catches a few loose strands of hair not bound up as Madison bends down and deposits a flower on her father's grave, then turns and repeats the process with the tombstone next to it. As she stands up she looks down at the two memorials, side by side, Jeanie Miller and Caleb Miller, a few snowflakes whip around her, prompting her to turn east and bringing her black eye patch into view on the left side of her face. Looking up at the sun coming up over the mountains to the east, her remaining eye narrowing dangerously, she breathes in and hisses a wordless vow to avenge them.<p> 


End file.
